We're on page 2, and I'm surprised no one has yet posted the link to the very lengthy post about this very subject, showing many people with this experience of the car shutting down with a few miles still left on the display.
Has your car shut down before it hits zero?
And that led to things like this:
"Zero" means "Zero" - Caution about Vegas to LA trip!
...where someone tried to go below 0 and the car shut down only 4 miles below 0, and this was considered huge and shocking and something that people needed to be warned about! *facepalm*
So no, there doesn't need to always be a buffer below 0, because people will just take it for granted, and it won't do anything. And if 0 means 0, then don't be shocked or offended if you get within about 3 or 4 of it, and there's a problem. That's basically about 1kWh of energy. Out of a 70-some kWh pack, that's about 1.4% margin of error. Someone is going to be offended and angry that a battery meter (or any kind of fuel meter, for that matter) is not quite accurate down to less than 2%?!
Has your car shut down before it hits zero?
NO! Because it definitely wouldn't prevent this kind of thing from happening. Have you been around here for 4 to 5 years or so? Do you remember all of the old discussion of people trying to be all authoritative about stating exactly how many miles reserve there was below 0? Some people said 20. Some people said 17. And so (obviously, as humans do), people came to expect to be able to drive that far below 0 every time, and frequently planned to do exactly that.I realize that the range estimations are not perfect but there should be some margin to prevent this kind of thing from happening.
And that led to things like this:
"Zero" means "Zero" - Caution about Vegas to LA trip!
...where someone tried to go below 0 and the car shut down only 4 miles below 0, and this was considered huge and shocking and something that people needed to be warned about! *facepalm*
So no, there doesn't need to always be a buffer below 0, because people will just take it for granted, and it won't do anything. And if 0 means 0, then don't be shocked or offended if you get within about 3 or 4 of it, and there's a problem. That's basically about 1kWh of energy. Out of a 70-some kWh pack, that's about 1.4% margin of error. Someone is going to be offended and angry that a battery meter (or any kind of fuel meter, for that matter) is not quite accurate down to less than 2%?!